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Thursday, June 30, 2016

June was a strange month where the books coming in were almost taller than my roses! I finally piled them all up today and made some tea (Thai osmanthus, thanks for asking.) More discussion and regions below the list.

Half this pile was from a trip to the used bookstore where I had credit to spend - Jones (because I loved the cover), Smith (because I wanted it in my collection), L'Engle (because I wanted to read more of her adult literature, although this doesn't qualify), the Hornby (to have in my collection), the Weise (because I had only read her poetry and know she's local), the Gibson (because I used to read all his novels and somehow never got around to this one), and the Boyd (because I enjoyed Any Human Heart.)

On Episode 061 of the Reading Envy Podcast, I discussed the book Some Day,a title from a publisher that was new to me. They contacted me and offered to send me a few more books, and I'm looking forward to the Lorchenkov (set in Moldova and the author is also from Moldova) and the Blondel. The Beagle is also a galley sent by a publisher, with the most beautiful cover! I only recently read The Last Unicorn for the first time and I'm looking forward to this one.

I ordered the Danler because it sounded right up my alley, the Teffi because a friend whose reading tastes are similar to mine demanded I read it right away, the Ullman because I had recently seen it on a list and then found it at a friends of the library bookstore in the NC mountains, and the Amend because I signed up for Book of the Month in a weak moment. All the readers in Litsy are doing it!

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Elizabeth (from Episode 033) is back to discuss books she's read recently. We are sometimes joined by children, dogs, and airplanes taking off from a nearby airport, but please just settle in as if you were in a friend's living room with all the ephemera. Welcome!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

I resurfaced from teaching my reading class on June 1, and went overboard at all the libraries! I need to get through these soon or I will have to return them unread, especially the interlibrary loan titles.

Two of these novels are for my Africa 2016 reading project - the Agualusa is from Angola and was also a nominee for the Man Booker International Prize this year. The Badkhen is non-fiction and looked good. I can't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I requested it from the library immediately.

I had pulled the King off the shelf when I was contemplating books in genres I don't usually read (and ended up with Amish romance and sports), and this is a book that comes up often in my book club. They read it before I joined them, but it stuck. I'm sure I'll like it once I get into it (why is non-fiction so hard to start?) I'm not sure I'll end up really reading the Osen but will definitely skim it for the titles. That was one that was near another book in the library and came home with me.

Some books were because of frequent mentions - Williams, Chee (also the June pick of one of my Goodreads groups), and Fuller. Fuller was also recommended by Nathan Ballingrud, the Hand (and maybe the Bennett) was recommended by Jeff VanderMeer, and the McCarry is just the next Paul Christopher book in my attempt to work through those spy novels.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Jenny is joined at the Reading Envy pub by Rose Davis, one generation removed from a previous guest! We cover a lot of ground, historically and geographically, from moody moors to being raised by vampires for political reasons to whether or not an Oprah Book Club sticker makes us more or less interested to read a book.

I purchased the Ballingrud, French, and Winell from Amazon, for entirely different reasons! I had recently acquired French #3 and #4 at a used book sale, previously read #1, and wanted to remedy missing a volume, so just bought a random used copy that I could use Amazon Prime to ship. Ballingrud of course has been on my podcast and I would have ended up reading this one, but then he was nominated for an award, and I wanted to read it sooner rather than later! The Winell is for my own personal journey, about dealing with a past laden with fundamentalism.

I staged a readathon for my Reading Class and one of the things we did was have a book swap. I snagged the Eggers and Lindbergh from the table - I actually don't want to read the Eggers but it was on the nomination list for my book club, and I thought if it ended up on the list I might as well have a copy! I know I've heard about the Lindbergh but can't exactly remember in what context. Probably a quick read.

The Brooks-Dalton is a review copy from a publisher, a post-apocalyptic novel featuring an astronaut and a scientist. It sounded kind of like a less funny version of that tv show, Last Man on Earth. I was up for it!